Wednesday the 7th I felt kinda icky all day, a little bit like I was starting to get the flu and I was having some little contractions. That night the contractions got worse, but there didnt seem to be any order to them so I ignored them and went to bed around 12:30. I woke at 3:45am to a gush of water and I was honestly hoping that I'd had an accident of some sort, but deep down I knew my water had broken. So I laid in bed for awhile and timed the contractions and they were 4 minutes apart and quite strong. I made my way to my parents room ( I still had not moved to be with my husband in North Carolina) and got my mom up and my dad drove us to L&D. I told them that I was pretty sure my water had broken and they took me in right away and checked me with this little swab thing thats suppose to test the fluid. The strip is suppose to turn blue if your water is broken, but mine didnt so they had to shove something up there and test again. It hurt soooo badly my knees were shaking but I think that was partially fear of what was going on. Anyway after she got the positive result she checked me and I was 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced. My doctor had me put on magnesium sulfate to slow down the contractions and they gave me a shot of steroids to mature my babys lungs. At that point they told me that the baby was coming out sooner rather than later and the trick was to keep her in 48 hours so the steroids had some time to work on her lungs. They were going to give me the second of the two shots the next day at 6 am and by saturday morning they would have taken effect. I called my husband early that morning and let him know that the baby was coming and he was able to get leave and fly out here. The doctor from the ICN came in and presented me with all the facts of what delivering a baby this early would mean. He got me ready for everything that could go wrong and told me what would happen as soon as she was delivered. All that was left to do was to wait for Matthew to get here and hope that Katrina would wait that long too. Late friday night Matt arrived and we cried together. I told him everything the doctor had told me and we agreed that together we would face whatever came our way.Saturday morning the doctor checked me but there was no new news since I had stopped contracting for the most part and I was not dilating any further. They moved me to antipartumbecause I was taking up space in a L&D room and not in labor. My doctor had mentioned to me there was awoman who's water had broken 10days earlyand she was still pregnant so I figured I was in for the long haul.Since my water had broken obviously I wouldnt be leaving the hospital until I had Katrina decided to come out on her own or they had to induce due to infection. Sunday morning the doctor came in and checked me out again and said he thought I could stay pregnant atleast a few more days and then he left. A few hours later my contractions returned and they were as strong as they had been the night I was admitted. The nurses decided to return me to labor and delivery to wait out the day and see if anything happend. Around 2 that afternoon the contractions picked up, I started leaking a lot of amniotic fluid again and my hips and back were aching. By4 that afternoon I was quite uncomfortable and the only way I could make it through a contraction was to stop talking, breathe through it and sqeeze my husbands hand.I stuck it out as long as I could ,but finally gave in and asked for the epidural around 6:00 that night. Before they gave me the epidural the nurse checked me and I was happy to hear that I was5cm dilated. Theanesthesiologist came to administer the epidural and the whole process took about 20 minutes. It took effect quickly and I was quite happythat when the doctor checked me I couldn't feel it. Hehad me put on pitocinso that my contractions wouldn't stall and the baby wouldn'ttire out. The pitocintook effect quickly and I started feeling contractions on my left side. It feel like i was being strabbed over and over so they let me administer the epidural to myself:) I started to feel less and less after they had me lay on my left side and I was getting ready to doze off for a little when the doctor walked in to check me again. To my complete supprise I 10 cm dilated andhe told everyone to get ready. Things happend quickly after that and I remember it all as kind of a blur. They hadMatt get all suited up in a white jumpsuit thing and a hair cover and I had one on as well. They wheeled me into the OR to have her partially because they wanted to get her out quickly if anything went wrong and it happens to be right next door to the ICN.As soon as I got in that room I started to shake...this was the moment that I would know just how healthy or sick my daughter was going to be, this was the end of me only living for me,this was me becoming someone elses everything. The doctor and nurses were all dashing around getting everything ready and I tuned them out. I laid there and focused on my husband and held onto his hand for dear life. I always thought that I would be too embarassed to be on display like that infront of 10 or more strangers, but I dont even remember who was in there now. All i remember is what I felt, my husbands presence and my fear. The nurse took her spot next to me and grabbed my leg and told Matthew to do the same. Because of the epidural I couldn't feel the contractions, but I could feel pressure in my bottom which was Katrinas head.The nurse told me when to push and I pushed. I could feel the babys head moving down a little at a time soI knew I was making progress. I heard my doctor say "I see lots of hair! Matt do you see all that hair?" My husband looked and said yes he did.The nurse told me that this push was gonig to have to be a big one so I took a deep breath and bore down forten seconds and then again for another ten seconds. All of the sudden everyone was telling me to stop pushing because her head was out. The doctor did something for a second and then they told me to push one last time. I closed my eyes and I pushed one last time and then I felt my daughter slide into the world. The room was completely silent for a few seconds and then I heard the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Katrina took a deep breath of air all by herself and cried and then so did I. They took her to the corner of the room to examin her and she continued to cry the whole time. Matthew was able to cut the cord and then he went with her to the ICN. Because my water had broken a few days before the doctor spent a lot of time cleaning everything out so I wouldn't get an infection. Finally they wheeled me back to my room and I laid there and waited for Matt. He walked in a short time later and told me exactly how our baby was doing. She was still breathing on her own so there was no need to hook her up to a machine, she was 3 pounds 11 oz and 16 inches long. Everyone was amazed that a baby born at 29 weeks and 6 days gestational age was doing as well as Katrina was doing. Matt and I shared a quiet moment together before the nurses came in to help clean me up before we headed to the ICN. Looking at her I was in awe of what a beautiful life Matthew and I had created and that was the moment I learned the meaning of unconditional love.
I was in the hospital until Tuesday but Katrina will be there much longer. They expect that she will go home a few days before what was going to be her due date but that all depends on her. Right now she still forgets to breath sometimes and she hasn't quite figured out how to eat so she is eating through a tube. She is hooked up to an IV with all kinds of things mixed in it, but they are hoping to get her off that in the next week. We have been working on breastfeeding and she is slowly learning how to suck, breath, and swallow which is a big deal for a preemie baby. She is 3 weeks and 2 days old now and she is up to 4 pounds and 6oz. Some days are good and I'm really positive and some days it breaks me to watch her struggle. Its going to be a long journey and its going to try every bit of my patience and my sanity but I will do anything I need to to ensure that Katrina comes out on top. Matthew had to return to Camp Lejeune when she was a little over a week old and that has been terribly hard on both of us. I'm not sure if its harder to be the one left behind and to deal with her health on my own on a daily basis or if its harder to be 3000 miles away and wondering how your baby is doing. So we take things day by day and I enjoy any moments I get with her...I feel so belssed because daily she beats the odds. Shes my miracle.

November 1st I had a lot of pinkish brown mucusy discharge and my contractions that I have been feeling had gotten way stronger, to the point where I couldn't walk through them anymore... but I was only having maybe one an hour or so so I didn't think anything of it... the next day I again (twice) had more bloody show... but again, my contractions weren't anything my Drs or the L&D nurses told me to worry about... so I went to bed... I woke up around 12-1 AM to bad contractions 2-3 minutes apart... I was hoping it would all fizzle out if I took a shower, they spaced out to 10 minutes then quickly dropped back to 2-3 minutes... after an hour of that shit I woke up my SO and told him we needed to pack our bags and go to the hospital... Poor guy didn't realize what I said (because he was still asleep) and told me to pack them and then wake him in the morning and we would go... ??? lol. I told him I couldn't drive myself to the hospital (as I rocked back and forth on my ball through each contraction... ) he finally popped up in bed and said "Wait... we are going tonight?!" I said "yeah... " He told me this better be it because he was sick of waking up and making 1 in the morning L&D trips lol... so we packed our bags (no I hadn't packed them yet... I was procrastinating... so for those of you that might not have them packed yet... PACK THEM! lol)....
It seemed like the ride took forever... I got there and was immediately placed on the monitors... my contractions were every 2-3 minutes and reading off the charts.... they gave me 3 doses of procardia to try to stop labor and it didn't work... so they checked me and since I was still dilating (I was about 5cm at this point) they had me whisked off to SHANDS to see what they could or would do for me... I got there and was checked and was still at 5cm.... they watched me and my contractions for 2 hours and checked me again.... this time I was 6cm and so they admitted me and let me sit in my room for another 2 hours to see if I was making any change... I didn't. My labor had officially stalled out on the morning of November 3rd leaving me stuck at 6cm.... The Dr came in and told me that they honestly didn't know what to do with me... They couldn't help my labor along unless I was contracting at least every 5 minutes... but they couldn't send me home because I was 6cm already... she asked me when and where I got my first ultrasound so they could check my dates and see EXACTLY how far along I was... They took a look at the ultrasound I had gotten at around 7-8 weeks and determined that I was in fact NOT 35 weeks and 3 days but only 34 weeks and 5 days pushing back my due date from Dec. 5th to Dec. 10th.... I wanted to cry.
The Drs left me and my fiance in the room alone for about an hour and then came back bringing with them an ultrasound machine... they looked hopeful! :)
They told me that since I had the steroid shots a month previous to all this and I had just finished another pill form of steroids for my PUPPP that they were going to do an amnio and test my water to see if her lungs were mature enough... if they were then they would break my water and start me on pitocin (I told them that I wasn't getting the pitocin unless I had an epidural... and I wanted a natural labor and birth)....
In went the needle (which I was soooo afraid of... I had my eyes squeezed shut so hard)... when they went in it felt like a pinch... but when they went through the uterus OMG it felt like the worst charlie horse EVER! lol.
The tests came back good and around 6:30 or so they broke my water. The contractions started up a million and ten times more painful and they were one on top of the other... I actually did ask for the epidural after the third contraction... I wont lie.... lol. but some lady needed an emergency C section and they only had one anesthesiologist working the floor... once they told me that and how it would probably be a few hours before they could get it to me I knew I was going back to plan A... I prepared myself all over again for a natural birth... I closed my eyes, held on to the bed rails... completely relaxed my body and just breathed through each contraction... I didn't talk to anyone... pretty soon I started feeling pressure in my butt... I told my SO to get the Drs and have them check me. I was 9cm with just a little bit of a lip... not even 5 minutes later my eyes popped open I looked straight at my SO and told him I needed to push and thatI needed the Drs in there with me NOW.... the three Drs and my nurse rushed in putting their masks and gloves on as they walked through the door... They started trying to break down the bed and kept telling me not to push yet... I kept yelling at them telling them that there was NO way I could NOT push... she was coming NOW. The nurse managed to get my feet up on the stirrups but I kept my knees together. The nurse tried prying my legs apart saying that it was OK to open them up... I yelled at her that it wasn't because no one was ready to catch my baby yet... she didn't believe me... and as soon as I opened upmy legs I yelled that she was coming and all three Drs started freaking out about how they weren't ready (the bed was still in one piece and there was nothing under my butt to catch any of the yucky birth stuff),but finally one of them got in position between my legs and I pushed once, out popped Asyia's head, I pushed once more, and out popped her shoulder, and one final push and out popped the rest of her :) Everyone was in awe of how fast I delivered and how well I did.... My SO was shocked lol. I told him though that this one was going to be fast... no one believed me. hahaha

Any-who... she came out breathing on her own. She passed all her tests. She is really red because of a high red blood cell count, but they said that that was because I was anemic and she still gets cold a lot faster than term babies and I have to keep her dressed in double the shirts and socks and mittens and on top of that wrap her in two blankets almost all the time....

Asyia Rosemary Nieves was born November 3, 2009 at 8:22PM. She was born 6 weeks early weighing a whopping 6 Lbs 8 oz and was 19 inches long! They told me that if she had stayed in until term she would have been around 10 pounds!

As soon as she passed her car seat test yesterday we were both released from the hospital. Breast feeding is going extremely well... Sophia LOVES her little sister and just loves to come up and stare at her and point at her lol. We have absolutely NO clothes that fit her... we only have 3 preemie size outfits and those too are huge on her... so I am running to the store tonight to buy out all their preemie size outfits and pajamas...

I still cant believe she is here... and I still cant believe I actually gave birth and labored through those contractions with no pain meds... I was so blessed to have had two such amazing births with both my girls... and I am even more-so blessed that Asyia came out of all this healthy and perfect :)

Thank you everyone that gave me the emotional support I needed throughout this insane pregnancy... You guys are awesome!